http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/30/apple-chinese-workers-treated-inhumanely/print
QuoteApple's Chinese workers treated 'inhumanely, like machines'Investigation finds evidence of draconian rules and excessive overtime to meet western demand for iPhones and iPads
Gethin Chamberlain guardian.co.uk, Saturday 30 April 2011 21.30 BST
An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west.
The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace rules at two major plants in southern China. It has also uncovered an "anti-suicide" pledge that workers at the two plants have been urged to sign, after a series of employee deaths last year.
The investigation gives a detailed picture of life for the 500,000 workers at the Shenzhen and Chengdu factories owned by Foxconn, which produces millions of Apple products each year. The report accuses Foxconn of treating workers "inhumanely, like machines".
Among the allegations made by workers interviewed by the NGOs â€" the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (Sacom) â€" are claims that:
■ Excessive overtime is routine, despite a legal limit of 36 hours a month. One payslip, seen by the Observer, indicated that the worker had performed 98 hours of overtime in a month.
■ Workers attempting to meet the huge demand for the first iPad were sometimes pressured to take only one day off in 13.
■ In some factories badly performing workers are required to be publicly humiliated in front of colleagues.
■ Crowded workers' dormitories can sleep up to 24 and are subject to strict rules. One worker told the NGO investigators that he was forced to sign a "confession letter" after illicitly using a hairdryer. In the letter he wrote: "It is my fault. I will never blow my hair inside my room. I have done something wrong. I will never do it again."
■ In the wake of a spate of suicides at Foxconn factories last summer, workers were asked to sign a statement promising not to kill themselves and pledging to "treasure their lives".
Foxconn produced its first iPad at Chengdu last November and expects to produce 100m a year by 2013. Last year Apple sold more than 15m iPads worldwide and has already sold close to five million this year.
When the allegations were put to Foxconn by the Observer, manager Louis Woo confirmed that workers sometimes worked more than the statutory overtime limit to meet demand from western consumers, but claimed that all the extra hours were voluntary. Workers claim that, if they turn down excessive demands for overtime, they will be forced to rely on their basic wage: workers in Chengdu are paid only 1,350 yuan (£125) a month for a basic 48-hour week, equivalent to about 65p an hour.
Asked about the suicides that have led to anti-suicide netting being fitted beneath the windows of workers' dormitories, Woo said: "Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow."
In a statement, Apple said: "Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base. Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive supplier code of conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the code through a rigorous monitoring programme, including factory audits, corrective action plans and verification measures."
what?? those things are not made in the USA??? :-)
This seems pretty comparable to most other stuff our consumer accepts. Most our clothing, shoes, and basically everything has some connection to similar conditions. There's really no incentive or desire for most people to improve the conditions of these workers. Sure, their are a few of us who want to but for the vast majority, "as long as I have my stuff at a reasonable price, I'll just look the other way."
Really, that's what people accept. The worst I've seen was a group of people complaining how they are overworked and they want more life-work balance near their server who isn't even from this country and if I read the reports right, probably works 12 hours a day/7 days a week for extremely low pay - these are the lucky ones! I don't even want to think about the conditions are inside places like our meat factories are. Oh yes, all this stuff happens inside US borders.
I don't know why but most people around here just won't stand up (when talk comes to action) and just buy more ethically created products thus creating a corporate incentive to produce more ethnically created products.
If you look on the back of every Apple product, it always say "Engineered in California."
-Josh
Meh. "Engineered" and "produced" are awfully different, methinks.
Quote from: Doctor_K on May 02, 2011, 12:05:12 PM
Meh. "Engineered" and "produced" are awfully different, methinks.
That's my point. Apple doesn't want anyone to know where their products come from.
-Josh
Quote from: cityimrov on May 02, 2011, 11:46:19 AM
This seems pretty comparable to most other stuff our consumer accepts. Most our clothing, shoes, and basically everything has some connection to similar conditions. There's really no incentive or desire for most people to improve the conditions of these workers. Sure, their are a few of us who want to but for the vast majority, "as long as I have my stuff at a reasonable price, I'll just look the other way."
Really, that's what people accept. The worst I've seen was a group of people complaining how they are overworked and they want more life-work balance near their server who isn't even from this country and if I read the reports right, probably works 12 hours a day/7 days a week for extremely low pay - these are the lucky ones! I don't even want to think about the conditions are inside places like our meat factories are. Oh yes, all this stuff happens inside US borders.
I don't know why but most people around here just won't stand up (when talk comes to action) and just buy more ethically created products thus creating a corporate incentive to produce more ethnically created products.
Yes. And it is illegal and undocumented aliens who are subjected to this. Our border should be secured and a guestworker program implemented to halt these abuses.
I'm surprised the article doesn't mention the somewhat newly installed suicide nets.
1 Million Workers. 90 Million iPhones. 17 Suicides. Who’s to Blame?http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1 (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/02/ff_joelinchina/all/1)
(http://www.wired.com/magazine/wp-content/images/19-03/ff_joelinchina4_f.jpg)
QuoteThe nets went up in May, after the 11th jumper in less than a year died here. They carried a message: You can throw yourself off any building you like, as long as it isn’t one of these. And they seem to have worked. Since they were installed, the suicide rate has slowed to a trickle.
QuoteI seem to be witnessing some of those damage-control efforts on this still-warm fall day as two Foxconn executivesâ€"along with a liaison from Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm hired to deal with the post-suicide outcryâ€"lead me through the facility. I have spent much of my career blogging about gadgets on sites like Boing Boing Gadgets and Gizmodo, reviewing and often praising many of the products that were made right here at Foxconn’s Shenzhen factory. I ignored the first Foxconn suicides as sad but statistically inevitable. But as the number of jumpers approached double digits, latent self-reproach began to boil over. Out of a million people, 17 suicides isn’t muchâ€"indeed, American college students kill themselves at four times that rate. Still, after years of writing what is (at best) buyers’ guidance and (at worst) marching hymns for an army of consumers, I was burdened by what felt like an outsize provision of guiltâ€"an existential buyer’s remorse for civilization itself. I am here because I want to know: Did my iPhone kill 17 people?
QuoteMy hosts are eager to help me answer that question in the negative by pointing out how pleasant life in the factory can be. They are quick with the college analogies: The canteens and mess halls are “like a college food court.†The living quarters, where up to eight workers share rooms about the size of a two-car garage, are “like college dorms.†The avenues and boulevards in the less industrial parts of the campus are “like malls.â€
For all their defensiveness, my guides are not far off the mark. The avenues certainly look more like a college campus than the dingy design-by-Communism concrete canyons I half expected to find. Sure, everything on the Foxconn campus is a bit shabbyâ€"errant woody saplings creep out of sidewalk cracks, and the signage is sometimes rusty or fadedâ€"more community college than Ivy League, perhaps. But it’s generally clean. Workers stroll the sidewalks chatting and laughing, smoking together under trees, as amiable as any group of factory workers in the first world.
But “college campus†doesn’t quite capture the vastness of the place. It’s more like a nation-state, a gated complex covering just over a square mile, separated from the rest of Shenzhen’s buildings by chain link and concrete. It houses one of the largest industrial kitchens in Asiaâ€"perhaps the world. Shenzhen itself was developed over the past three decades as one of party leader Deng Xiaoping’s Special Economic Zonesâ€"a kind of capitalist hot spot. The experiment was a rousing success. Millions of workers, gambling that low but dependable wages would be more readily found in Shenzhen, migrated from the poor, rural western provinces, packing into the tenement complexes that soon riddled the city. Factory work offered a chance to change their lives and the lives of their families back home, but it offered little in the way of security. Many companies did not supply housing, leaving workers to find shelter in dodgy slums or encouraging them to sleep on the assembly line. When they did provide lodging, it was typically a dorm room crammed with bunk beds.
According to company lore, Foxconn founder Terry Gou was determined to do things differently. So when the firm built its Longhua factory in Shenzhen, it included onsite dormitoriesâ€"good ones, designed to be better than what workers could afford on their own. Terry Gou built on-campus housing, I am told, because Terry Gou cared about the welfare of his employees.
Up went a factory, up went a dorm. Up went an assembly line, up went a cafeteria. While other companies’ workers fended for themselves or slept under the tables they worked at, Gou’s employees were well fed, safe from the petty crime of a growing metropolis, and surrounded by peers and advocates.
It rings as unalloyed munificenceâ€"until a man puts his foot on the edge of a roof, looks across the campus full of trees and swimming pools and coffee shops, and steps off into nothing.
Nobody really wants to talk about it Shwaz. Well... no one who uses Apple products. ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdrCalO5BDs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdrCalO5BDs)
http://www.youtube.com/v/cdrCalO5BDs
I looked at the little stickers on all of the apples in my refrigerator and it states that they were grown in the USA, mostly in Washington State. :D
:D No doubt DW... probably harvested with slave labor invited in from south of the border... :D
Quote from: stephendare on May 02, 2011, 02:18:15 PM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on May 02, 2011, 01:56:41 PM
:D No doubt DW... probably harvested with slave labor invited in from south of the border... :D
Ah.. Easier to keep those guys out than it is to enforce our minimum, wage laws, right?
That way our own people can be victimized instead. good plan, bt.
Why are you so confused? Not trying to keep em out. I want the border secured so those coming across can be documented and protected. Sneaking across as you and our current administration seem to prefer invites the abuses.
Quote from: stephendare on May 02, 2011, 02:29:54 PM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on May 02, 2011, 02:27:46 PM
Quote from: stephendare on May 02, 2011, 02:18:15 PM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on May 02, 2011, 01:56:41 PM
:D No doubt DW... probably harvested with slave labor invited in from south of the border... :D
Ah.. Easier to keep those guys out than it is to enforce our minimum, wage laws, right?
That way our own people can be victimized instead. good plan, bt.
Why are you so confused? Not trying to keep em out. I want the border secured so those coming across can be documented and protected. Sneaking across as you and our current administration seem to prefer invites the abuses.
Its the illegalization that makes the abuse possible.
Maybe we should have all the farmers do what Apple Corp does...
QuoteIn a statement, Apple said: "Apple is committed to ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply base. Apple requires suppliers to commit to our comprehensive supplier code of conduct as a condition of their contracts with us. We drive compliance with the code through a rigorous monitoring programme, including factory audits, corrective action plans and verification measures."
(http://elevenacrefarm.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/fuji-apple.jpg) I know.
(http://i.bnet.com/blogs/verizon-prepping-the-ipad.jpg)
Me too...
The silence of all you Apple users is positively deafening! ::) :o
Does anyone think that products made for any of the other electronics companies are produced in conditions significantly different than Apple's?
Or is it because the stereotypical Apple-user drives around with a mac sticker on one side of the car and a 'save the planet' sticker on the other side? I suppose the point here is to identify the inconsistencies.
You should see a doctor about that... it seems to be happening more and more. I am getting worried about you. Not anti union and never have been. I certainly do not approve of the labor conditions of those producing the Apple products so adored by so many in this country. Are those phones sticky when you open the box?
The "penalty" I support for undocumented aliens is deportation. I suppose you consider it harsh... I see it as pretty lenient. I would secure the border to stop the flow of
undocumented workers... and allow a system of
documented workers to work in this country. We have discussed this often.
If you are referring to public or government unions... then yes... I have certain issues with them.
You mention...
Quotewe allowed so many Corporations to relocate plants
Are you saying the government should force Corps to stay? How should we have stopped them?
QuoteDidn't really save that much money in the long run, but managed to export the jobs elsewhere.
Germany and Japan "exported" jobs here. I wonder if they saved money?
Off the mark again! Some counseling may be in order Stephen. I am sure the Chinese are happy you are promoting their products... :)
Quote from: stephendare on May 03, 2011, 08:46:40 AM
Quote from: BridgeTroll on May 03, 2011, 08:43:44 AM
Off the mark again! Some counseling may be in order Stephen. I am sure the Chinese are happy you are promoting their products... :)
Ah. The cake doesnt taste so good after youve already eaten it does it?
Sorry man, but you cant be anti immigrant, anti labor and still complain about chinese working conditions.
Its like being against sex education, contraception and family planning, but then getting pissed about unwanted pregnancies.
One thing leads to another.
I might agree with you if I was actually anti immigrant and anti labor. Since I am neither your analysis is wrong. I am clearly pro immigrant and pro labor.
Quote from: stephendare on May 03, 2011, 09:20:01 AM
yes. Like George Lincoln Rockwell was pro Israel, and Phyllis Schlaeffly is pro lesbian.
The above quote perfectly describes
your position regarding immigration.
BTW... Schlafly.
Stephen & BT, you both produced an interesting discussion on immigration & labor in not only this thread but other threads. Which comes to the question that really matters, what do you think the chances are that any of your ideas will be implemented in the real world?
Right now, our society is so tied into cheap labor that getting out of it will be extremely difficult. Not only that, since our wages are declining every year (which most people don't realize), cheap labor has been used to "mask" our buying power. This basically means if we all of a sudden go to non-cheap labor, the people who are complaining about the increase in prices of various stuff now are going to go into shock or something. Maybe even riot or something?
What is a realistic solution that our politicians will implement and our society will be willing to accept? What is the way out of this situation?
Or is the only way out to wait for another painful giant crash and pick up the pieces just to get something done? If the system collapses, I think people are willing to accept any option but for now, I'm not sure people are willing to accept the realistic options on the table. I mean, look at what happened to health care... something that concerned them directly! This issue concerns other people! People who they will probably never meet or see in their entire lives (except those in the service industry)!
Stephens responce is interesting... but flawed.
QuoteThe national distribution system relies on cheap labor in order to compensate for the rising price of oil.
We have been relying on cheap labor long before the rising price of oil became an issue. Cheap labor is cheap labor. So while the imaginary numbers are interesting and certainly have bearing on increasing prices for products...
My issue with regards to cheap labor is the illegal immigration issue. Current US policy actually encourages sneaking over the border, taking jobs from Americans and legal immigrants, and sending the fruits of labor back across the border... while the owners of farms and businesses pay slave wages and provide inhumane working conditions.
QuoteThese discussions about immigration as they are currently constructed are race/cultural based at their heart. I have found that the people most passionate about the issues of immigration are usually either bigots or nationalists and do not really care at all about the underlying economic issue.
This is simply false. Of course there are bigots who attach themselves to this issue... but to equate those who are actually interested in fixing this broken system with bigots is to attempt to evade and derail constructive discussion to fix a broken system.
Here is a link to a serious proposal of mine to provide a "win, win, win" scenario for everyone...
QuoteThe Bracero program adhered to the most basic economic principle of supply and demand. It exploited the bountiful supply of willing Mexican labor, offered Mexican nationals a chance to improve their buying power, relieved the Mexican government of excess workers and met U.S. farmers' great demand for inexpensive labor. This flexibility and mobility of labor created an undisputed world leader in the market, justifying and prolonging the U.S. agriculture-Mexican labor relationship.
http://www1.american.edu/ted/bracero.htm
Below is the Metro Jax link... read it. Check out the links.
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,8733.0.html
From Electronics to Frozen Veggies - its endemic! And I look directly to the US Corporations who are profiting from this, either by being knowingly complicit or the benign negligent of turning a blind eye to the obvious.
Whole Foods Lawsuit Over Chinese Frozen Vegetables Can Proceed in Florida
By Susannah Nesmith - Apr 21, 2011 3:35 PM ET
l
A Florida judge allowed a lawsuit to proceed that claims Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI) violated the state’s deceptive trade-practices law by selling frozen vegetables from China grown in a polluted region by prisoners and certified as organic.
Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Amy Steele Donner yesterday denied the grocery chain’s motion to dismiss the suit filed on behalf of the Southeast Consumer Alliance Inc., a non-profit organization based in Boca Raton, Florida.
The suit claims that Whole Foods knew that its Silver River supplier, based in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, was actually a front company for a network of farms where Chinese prisoners are forced to work and that the farms are irrigated from a highly polluted river.
The suit also claims that Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods knew that the company providing the initial organic certification is owned by the Chinese government, which also owns the farms, creating a conflict of interest.
“They’re doing everything they can to conceal this bogus or shaky certification,†Bruce Baldwin, the group’s attorney, said. “Whole Foods brags about its social accountability audits of all of its foreign suppliers. So either they knew about these forced labor camps, or they didn’t actually check.â€
A spokeswoman for the grocery store chain didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment. Whole Foods attorney Christopher Wayne Wadsworth said he wasn’t authorized to comment on the case.
In court filings, Wadsworth argued that the suit “amounts to little more than an unsupported slur against China’s farming industry and a meritless attack on Whole Foods stated corporate values and goals.â€
Baldwin said Whole Foods pulled many of its Chinese frozen vegetables off the shelves after he filed the suit but that the company continues to sell Chinese soy beans. The case, which is seeking class-action, or group, certification, was originally filed in 2009 and amended last year to include the deceptive trade practices claim.
To back up his claims, Baldwin filed exhibits of news reports about forced labor and pollution in China.
The case is Southern Consumer Alliance Inc. v. Whole Foods Market Inc., 09-cv-92727CA, Miami-Dade County Circuit Court (Miami).
Well Tariffs have gone from an average of 23% when Regan took office to about 2% now. So now when a rich investor/ producer wants to "trickle down" his or her money they do so where it is cheaper to produce.
We need to get from a free trade Regan/Clinton model back to a more Hamiltonian Fair Trade model.
btw I know Clinton has expressed regret over his free trade agreements but that does not mean squat to me.
I LOOOOVE my iPhone, my macbook, and my wife's macbook.
I love it even more knowing that the people that build it have a LOWER suicide rate than those who live in the same city but do not work in the factory.
I also love it more because those people that build it also make more money than the average worker in that city.
Not only do I get a great product, but I get to feel morally superior! --- now I can fit in with a lot of you folks around here.
Quote from: redglittercoffin on May 04, 2011, 06:27:47 PM
I LOOOOVE my iPhone, my macbook, and my wife's macbook.
I love it even more knowing that the people that build it have a LOWER suicide rate than those who live in the same city but do not work in the factory.
I also love it more because those people that build it also make more money than the average worker in that city.
Not only do I get a great product, but I get to feel morally superior! --- now I can fit in with a lot of you folks around here.
:D
Quote from: redglittercoffin on May 04, 2011, 06:27:47 PM
I LOOOOVE my iPhone, my macbook, and my wife's macbook.
I love it even more knowing that the people that build it have a LOWER suicide rate than those who live in the same city but do not work in the factory.
I also love it more because those people that build it also make more money than the average worker in that city.
Not only do I get a great product, but I get to feel morally superior! --- now I can fit in with a lot of you folks around here.
Shocking!
Quote
How Much Would the iPad 2 Cost If It Were Made in the U.S.? About $1,140
Apple has contracted to make its iPad 2s in China, where the typical worker makes a hardy $185 a week. What if, in a fever of uneconomic patriotism, Apple chose to make its iPads in the U.S.? Assuming typical U.S. manufacturers worked at the same speed as the Chinese, and assuming Apple raised the price to maintain its profit margin, the iPad 2 would cost more than $1,100....
Read more here: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/how-much-would-the-ipad-2-cost-if-it-were-made-in-the-us-about-1-140/238508/
The math of the above article is off but the final price would still be pretty expensive. Read the comments to this article for a different take on agriculture. Apparently our farm products "magically" are cheaper due to the wonders of modern technology - while true - is really only part of the picture. Sadly, it looks like the immigration part of agriculture as well as our dependency on oil is still ignored by most people.
"We need to get off of "Big Computer"...
Quote from: redglittercoffin on May 04, 2011, 06:27:47 PM
I LOOOOVE my iPhone, my macbook, and my wife's macbook.
I love it even more knowing that the people that build it have a LOWER suicide rate than those who live in the same city but do not work in the factory.
I also love it more because those people that build it also make more money than the average worker in that city.
Not only do I get a great product, but I get to feel morally superior! --- now I can fit in with a lot of you folks around here.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,761934,00.html
Quote05/11/2011
An Inside Look at Apple Supplier Foxconn
'We Were Not a Very Open Company Before'
By Hannes Koch in Chengdu, China
Secretive electronics giant Foxconn, which makes products for Apple and other Western firms, attracted unwanted publicity in 2010 when 13 workers committed suicide. In a visit to its plants in China, SPIEGEL ONLINE saw how the company has responded, including measures such as appointing counselors and installing anti-suicide nets.
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They jog in orderly rows of twos through the industrial area. The young people, who look about 19 or 20, hope to be future builders of the iPad. Each of them holds a brown envelope in his or her left hand that contains their job application. At the foreman's command, they turn a corner onto the steps of the recruitment office.
They are here because of electronic component manufacturer Foxconn, which is hiring tens of thousands of employees. The company has built new factories in the Chinese city of Chengdu to produce millions of iPads for Apple. The supplier is known for the strict rules it imposes on its employees. Last year, that strict discipline may have helped lead to the suicide of 13 workers at a Foxconn facility in Shenzhen. At the time, observers spoke of terrible working conditions there.
SPIEGEL ONLINE paid a visit to the Chengdu plant to examine the question of whether the company is now treating its employees better.
'Work Is Work'
"We are not allowed to talk while we are working," says 19-year-old Wang Cui, whose name was changed for this story. She has prominent eyes and dark skin, and wears a blue vest with the Foxconn logo over her white plastic jacket. Her long fingernails are well cared-for. She does not work on the production line, but instead performs quality control on iPad housings.
Is she bothered by the strict rules? "Work is work, the rest is the rest," says Wang, shrugging her shoulders.
Then she does talk, despite the ban. She says she fears the foremen. "The supervisors do not respect the workers," she says, adding that her colleagues have been punished even for small mistakes. The supervisors forced them to stand between the production lines for all to see -- almost as if they were in the pillory.
"Order and obedience rule here," says Wang. Her colleagues nod.
Foxconn concedes the possibly that there might have been misconduct. "We do not support it, but cannot rule out that it can happen," the company said in a statement. "But we want to change that."
Obligatory Overtime
At lunchtime thousands of workers stream out of the factory and into the area in front of the factory's gate. The food in the factory's cafeteria is not to their taste, so they buy noodles in plastic bowls and steamed vegetables from food stands mounted on bicycles and motorcycles. Trucks with heavy loads squeeze their way through the crowds on their way to the factory, honking their horns.
"I work from Monday to Saturday, 12 hours a day," says Zhang Feng, 20, who also works in quality control. He has combed his dyed-brown hair diagonally across his face, following a Japanese fashion. Two obligatory overtime hours are included in each work day, and Saturdays also count as overtime. "That makes almost 20 overtime hours per week," says Zhang, "and a total of 80 a month."
These working hours are standard at Foxconn in Chengdu, but Chinese labor laws only allow 36 overtime hours a month. "The overtime at Foxconn often exceeds the legal limit by more than 100 percent," says Chan Sze Wan of the Hong Kong-based workers' rights non-profit Sacom. Together with the campaign "Make IT Fair," which is being supported by the European Union, Chan regularly investigates the working conditions at Foxconn.
The company says it is pursuing the goal of limiting overtime to 36 hours per month. Along those lines, it is working in conjunction with local authorities to build more dormitories and factories. "In addition, we are working on making the basic wage high and ensuring that employees do not have to work overtime just to cover their basic needs," says a spokesperson.
City within a City
The construction of factories in Chengdu only began last year, but 100,000 people are already working there. Few outsiders have visited the plants in that time.
Foxconn, which is based in Taiwan, has its main factory in mainland China in Shenzhen, which is 1,500 kilometers south of Chengdu, near Hong Kong. Here, everything looks orderly. About 400,000 people work here in a factory complex that is several square kilometers in size -- a city within a city. In the past, outsiders were not able to visit the campus, but the company now allows visitors to this facility in a bid to improve its image following the series of suicides in 2010.
Dozens of production lines stand next to each other in the brightly-lit factory buildings, which are hundreds of meters long. The shiny floors are painted gray. Everything is extremely clean, almost sterile. The workers who put together the iPhones, MacBooks and other products wear anti-static jackets. Visitors have to wear caps and put covers on their shoes, so they don't bring in any dirt.
Some of the production steps are fully automated. But many employees have to repeat the same monotonous hand movements thousands of times a day. Talking is not allowed unless it is absolutely necessary, and workers have to ask their supervisors for permission to use the restroom.
Safety Nets
The main street that leads, past barriers and control points, from the factory gate to the interior of the extensive grounds is lined with palm trees and flower beds. There are banks, stores, libraries, swimming pools and cafés where one can get a good cup of espresso.
Only the safety nets attached to the facades of the taller buildings do not fit so well with the image of a civilized industrial compound. They were installed a year ago to prevent future distraught employees from jumping to their deaths. At the same time, the company opened a "care center" in which advisers are available around the clock to help employees with their personal and work problems.
"We were not a very open company before," says Foxconn manager Louis Woo. "But now we are listening more to our employees in order to learn what they expect from life." A distinguished-looking 63-year-old, he is wearing a shirt with suspenders and has shed his jacket on account of the heat.
He says he knows that Chinese labor law only allows for 36 hours of overtime a month, but explains that a lack of infrastructure makes it hard to adhere to the guidelines. "That should not be an excuse," Woo says. "We don't want to break the rules. In order to abide by them, we are building more factories and more dormitories for the workers, and we are hiring more people."
Violating Apple's Code of Conduct
In other words, the demand from Apple, Nokia, Sony and other big-name companies is so high that Foxconn is simply letting its workers work over the legal limits.
In theory, this business practice violates the code of conduct that Apple requires of its producers. Their policy dictates that working hours should not exceed legal limits under any circumstances.
But when contacted by SPIEGEL ONLINE, Apple spokesman Alan Hely did not address the issue of overtime. Instead, he merely pointed out the improvements that Foxconn has undertaken since 2010.
Quote from: redglittercoffin on May 04, 2011, 06:27:47 PM
I LOOOOVE my iPhone, my macbook, and my wife's macbook.
I love it even more knowing that the people that build it have a LOWER suicide rate than those who live in the same city but do not work in the factory.
I also love it more because those people that build it also make more money than the average worker in that city.
Not only do I get a great product, but I get to feel morally superior! --- now I can fit in with a lot of you folks around here.
So with the savings from Chinese slavery one would be able to pay full price for furniture, no?
Quote from: cityimrov on May 09, 2011, 12:10:39 AM
Quote
How Much Would the iPad 2 Cost If It Were Made in the U.S.? About $1,140
Apple has contracted to make its iPad 2s in China, where the typical worker makes a hardy $185 a week. What if, in a fever of uneconomic patriotism, Apple chose to make its iPads in the U.S.? Assuming typical U.S. manufacturers worked at the same speed as the Chinese, and assuming Apple raised the price to maintain its profit margin, the iPad 2 would cost more than $1,100....
Read more here: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/05/how-much-would-the-ipad-2-cost-if-it-were-made-in-the-us-about-1-140/238508/
The math of the above article is off but the final price would still be pretty expensive.
Negative. Jobs said in the first iPad presentation that their price structure would be revolutionary... and he was right. Look at all the tablets being produced now that are regarded as 'too chintzy' and 'too expensive' to compete.
Apple does a lot to keep costs down by selling from their own brick vs. mortar stores but without cheap labor these products would only be a pipe dream for most.
Looks like the next iPad may not come from China after all.
http://www.cultofmac.com/president-of-brazil-drops-taxes-to-guarantee-your-next-ipad-is-made-in-rio/95880#more-95880 (http://www.cultofmac.com/president-of-brazil-drops-taxes-to-guarantee-your-next-ipad-is-made-in-rio/95880#more-95880)
(http://cultofmac.cultofmaccom.netdna-cdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/brazil_flag.jpg)
QuoteFaced with the ongoing PR crisis of suicides and alleged human rights violations of its Chinese contractors, it’s looking increasingly like Apple might shift a sizable portion of their iPad production to Brazil. To prepare, Brazil’s president lowered taxes on producing and purchasing tablets in the South American country.
Tuesday, Brazil Communications Minister Paulo Bernardo announced the government would provide tablets regulatory relief amounting to a 36 percent price cut. One measure will put equipment for tablet manufacture on par with incentives offered PC notebook makers. The changes exempt tablet producers from a 9.25 percent PIS tax, cut the country’s IPI sales tax to 3 percent from 15 percent and reduce the import tax.
“Regulation opens the door for more investment,†Bernardo is quoted in the local press. Last month, Brazil President Dilma Roussef told a Beijing audience Foxconn has invested $12 billion in a possible manufacturing site. The site could begin making iPad’s as soon as November, another Brazil minister said.
Brazil’s enticement of iPad manufacturing is part of a concerted effort to increase foreign companies relocating to the nation. The South American country reported a 42 percent increase in consumer imports during 2010.